Scrubs Season Eight (Includes Spoiler Videos)

Last night was the season premiere for Scrubs, now in its eighth season and now on ABC. Since this is one of my favorite shows I’m going to be a little self-indulgent and share with you some links, including some spoiler clips from upcoming episodes. UPDATE: Both of the videos in this post are from episodes that have now aired.

The Essentials

After reading this post you might think I spend my entire day scouring the Internet for Scrubs knowledge. In reality, everything I know and all of these links come from these three sources.

The Official Scrubs Site on ABC.com

• Watch new episodes here
• Watch exclusive webisodes featuring the new interns, with guest appearances from the regular cast

Scrubs HQ

• A blog that regularly posts interviews, behind-the-scenes clips and spoiler info
• If you were going to read just one site for Scrubs info this should be your choice

Bill Lawrence’s Blog

• The creator of Scrubs has recently begun blogging
• Guest posts from his wife Christa Miller who plays Jordan on the show

Spoiler Clips

Both of these clips have been posted by Zach Braff on his MySpace profile (yeah, someone actually still uses that site). The first video is from the eleventh episode of season eight called “My Lawyer’s In Love.” In it, we see that JD and the Janitor have called a truce in order to help a love-struck Ted. The second video is from the twelfth episode of season eight called “My Nah Nah Nah.” Here we see JD imagining himself on SportsCenter (hence the title of the episode – think of that show’s theme song). We also get to here Carla’s goofy laugh, which kills me every time.

My Thoughts on Season Eight

I watched the first two episodes of the season last night and was impressed. Everything I had been reading about how the writers and creators were trying to bring the tone back to what it had been in the first couple of seasons seems to be true. This show has had its share of unmemorable season premieres (with the notable exception of season two’s “My Overkill” featuring Colin Hay as the hospital troubadour). This one, entitled “My Jerks,” while not an instant classic, at least told a pretty good story. The second episode was fantastic. It’s one that highlights this show’s ability to go from being zany funny to stoic in the blink of an eye. It’s eerily similar to the first season episode “My Old Lady” in which a woman near death who has accepted her fate comforts the young JD as he experiences the death of a patient for the first time. Now, eight years later in “My Last Words,” JD helps a man who is afraid of death accept his fate.

I’m excited about the guest stars this season. If you’ve seen the first couple of episodes (and the surprising amount of advertising by ABC) you know that Courtney Cox was in the first two episodes. She’ll also be in the third. I’m looking forward to the episode that will include Muppets from Sesame Street. I really like this behind-the-scenes video of Zach Braff and Elmo recording an ad for the show (sorry for the crappy quality – the original was taken down). There have been rumors that Michael J. Fox will reprise his role as Dr. Kevin Casey, which would be totally wicked. Scott Foley, Elizabeth Banks and Tom Cavanagh have confirmed they’ll reprise their respective roles. Sadly, Masi Oka, best known as Hiro Nakamura from Heroes but first known as Franklyn the lab assistant on Scrubs, will not be appearing. NBC is still a little bitter over the breakup, apparently.

There’s a lot of uncertainty as to whether this will be the last season or not. Bill Lawrence, Zach Braff and Judy Reyes will all be leaving the show after this year, but I’m betting that if the ratings are even halfway decent ABC will pick it up for season nine. There aren’t that many live action comedies in prime-time anymore. We’re stuck with drama and reality. The fact that this show has a following, is relatively inexpensive to create (or so I’ve read), and is in a diminishing niche appeals to ABC, I would imagine, or else they wouldn’t have picked it up for this season. I would be very surprised if this show doesn’t come back for another year. Whether the writers will be able to effectively make the transition after two of its stars and its creator leave is a different story.

Your Thoughts

Thanks for putting up with this blatant fanboy post. If you watched the first two episodes of the eighth season of Scrubs let me know what you thought of them. If you haven’t seen them, go watch them, come back and comment!